Amidst the flurry of stories floating around the Deutsch-Lowe merger, this Ad Age article caught my eye for a very surprising fact:
According to one person close to the matter, Lowe in New York has 150 people and Deutsch about 250, and cuts of about 10% — some 40 people — are expected in the coming days, mostly for non-client-facing roles. A spokeswoman said the matter of redundancies is under review.
250 at Deutsch in NY? 150 at Lowe? To me, that seems awfully low for what I’ve perceived to be big agencies. I’m not disputing figures, I’m just surprised. I guess years of dumping staff have taken their toll on large NY agencies. If you’d asked me to take an uneducated guess, I’d have said there were several hundred people at both shops.
Is it the same way at the other New York offices of prominent shops–JWT? BBDO? DDB? Grey? McCann? Ogilvy? Are the employee numbers dropping that much? If you can enlighten me, please do so.